Münster Zwiefalten

Ich fuhr durch Zwiefalten und mein Blick fiel auf das Münster Zwiefalten. Zwiefalten ist eine Gemeindemit etwa 2100 Einwohnern und liegt zwischen Stuttgart und dem Bodensee. Das Münster gehört zur ehemaligen Benediktiner-Abtei Zwiefalten, die im Besitz des Landes Baden-Württemberg und heute Zentrum für Psychiatrie ist. Das Benediktiner-Klosters wurde1089 gegründet wurde. Die gegenwärtige Architektur stammt allerdings aus dem 18. Jahrhundert.

Als ich das Münster betrat, war ich einigermaßen betreten, denn man sah kaum etwas. Draußen goss es in Strömen, so dass ich mich trotzdem etwas umgesehen habe. Da las ich dann „Katholische Münsterkirche Zwiefalten / Konservatorische Temperierung des Kirchenraums“. Nun in einer Barockkirche dachte ich bei Temperierung eher an Johann Sebastian Bach und „Das wohltemperierte Klavier“. Hier aber handelt es sich um Arbeiten, die für die Temperatur des Kirchenraumes und damit zum Schutz der Kunstwerke notwendig sind. Hohe Luftfeuchtigkeit und Temperaturen im Minusbereich werden dadurch vermieden. Der Kirchenraum soll auf konstant 7° C durch eine Warmwasserfußbodenheizung temperiert werden, wie die Schwäbische Zeitung berichtete. „Insgesamt sollen 1,62 Millionen Euro Landesmittel eingesetzt werden, dazu kommt Unterstützung durch die Diözese.“ Im April 2019 sollen die Arbeiten beendet sein. Dann hoffe ich, den Innenraum besuchen zu können.

 

Deckengemälde im Vorraum

 

 

Von Norden her

Links:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kloster_Zwiefalten

https://www.zwiefalten.de/,Lde/Startseite/Gemeinde/das+zwiefalter+muenster+ist+zur+zeit+geschlossen.html

https://www.schwaebische.de/landkreis/landkreis-biberach/zwiefalten_artikel,-die-sch%C3%A4den-sind-schlimmer-als-erwartet-_arid,10940259.html

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Proto-Elamite and Later Scripts

In Teheran I could visit the museum and look at old scripts as well as newer scripts. Later I’ve been able also to see, where there artifacts had been unearthed.

Even as early as 8000 BC there have been clay tokens. Later scripts were developed. One of these is the Proto-Elamite script, which was before cuneiform and also parallel to cuneiform. We talk about a period that lies 5000 years before today. These scripts have been found at different sites and there still is a lot to be unearthed. Some artifacts come from Susa.

The scripts show numbers and pictograms. The oldest texts still have to be deciphered. Numbers are like in neighboring Mesopotamia. Some pictograms are known as they are pictures of objects. Lots of abstract characters haven’t been deciphered yet. There is no bilingual tablet. The Elamite language is unknown. It may well be that some tablets are inventories or registers of taxes. There are texts from later (1200-1100 BC), which are deciphered, so that some data exists on the later form of the language. Maybe this will enable us later to decipher also older texts.  

Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Elamite

http://www.ancientscripts.com/elamite.html

https://www.omniglot.com/writing/elamite.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elamite_language

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Sky Burial in the Towers of Silence

The Zoroastrians practiced sky burials. I have visited other sky burial sites, like in Tibet, where the extreme altitude makes decomposition impossible, and because of the scarcity of fuel, burning isn’t an option, too. In Iran or India, where the Zoroastrians thrived, the reason for sky burial had been avoiding contact of the corpse with the sacred elements earth or fire. The dakhma (دخمه) or towers of silence were built in remote areas, far outside the settlements, where only a guard, called nasasalar, held the right of entrance. The corpse would be laid out and fastened in order that the vultures would take away pieces and then contaminate the earth. Also the nasasalar lived outside society in order not to spread disease.

We might think it alien to have corpses eaten by vultures, but in principle eaten by worms doesn’t make a big difference. The bones were collected an sometimes put into an ossuarium, and sometimes put into a collective pit in the middle of the tower of silence.

A law had been passed during the 1970ies, which forbid sky burial. Since then the corpses are buried next to the towers of silence, but in order not to pollute the earth they are put into graves of rock and concrete.

15 years ago the towers of silence of Yazd were not protected as a historical site, so that male youths were using the hills for motocross biking. Luckily this practice has been abandoned.

 

Another tower of silence in Yazd 

 

 Entrance to the lower tower of silence

 

The stone round with the bone pit in the middle 

 

2004 - towers of silence (?) 

surrounded by motocross paths 

 

2004 - motocross in action 

in front of historical buildings

 

Links and References:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Silence

Stausberg, M.: Zarathustra und seine Religion. Beck, München 2005, ISBN 3-406-50870-7.

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Lyric published at POETS The Original from 22.10. till 25.10.2018

The Ship of Dreams

The ship of dreams casts off

And sails out into the night

Out of the safe harbor

Out into rough seas

The backwash fluoresces in blue

All waves burst at the bow

The lights dwindle with the ride

And the night is still driving us on

And the promise continues to drive us

Then only flickering starlight

Later the gyrated candles flicker

And wine sparkles in chalices

The music opens to the dance

But the ship sails back into the harbor

Das Schiff der Träume

Das Schiff der Träume legt ab

Und fährt hinAus in die Nacht

HinAus aus sicherem Hafen

HinAus in rauhere See

Das KielWasser fluoresziert in Blau

Sämtliche Wellen bersten am Bug

Die Lichter schwinden mit der Fahrt

Und weiter treibt uns die Nacht vorAn

Und weiter treibt uns die Verheißung

Dann nur noch flackerndes SternLicht

Später flackern dann Kerzen

Der Wein funkelt in Pokalen

Die Musik spielt auf zum Tanz

Aber das Schiff fährt in den Hafen

© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (picture and poem)

Ahwas (اهواز)

Universe

Spanning above and around us – the universe

So vast in time and space – our universe

But every human is a universe as well

Let’s salute us and the whole universe

Big bang and after this

Billions of years of silence

ENTER mankind – just a flash

EXIT man, then silence again

Matter is rare in this universe

Rather emptiness is expanding

In all the empty mess of this universe

There is a small marble – our earth

When our marble will be too small

When we’ll reach out for the stars

When we’ll boldly go

Where no man went before

Then we’ll fathom the emptiness of Zen

And shall be one with the universe

© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (poem)

Across Stubble Fields

The barren stubble field

The scarecrows do not complain

But their laughter has gone

Stumble past them

Through night and fog

Without the warmth of the stars

Your muddy track

Will be blurred by the rain

But you move on

The smell of your sweat

Will be carried on by the wind

Because you move on

But you will not find anything

Except for stubble fields

So what keeps you moving on?

The fog knows it

The night knows too

And you conceive it slowly

© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (picture and poem)

Yasd (يزد)

Autumn rain

Running down the window

Steam of a tea cup

© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (picture and poem)

https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2018/10/autumn-rain_24.html

Flags

They raise the flags

Flying above the battlements

In the colors of the rainbow

Red, orange, yellow, green

Blue, indigo and black

And black

Red like your cheeks and heavy wine

Orange as the morning dawn

Yellow like the sun at high noon

Green like Walther’s meadow with flowers

Blue as the sky after the storm

Indigo like your most beautiful dress

And black

Like mourning for war and death

And black as a reminder of all the good

Walther – Walther von der Vogelweide (1170-1230), „schône beide / gebrochen bluomen unde gras“ (middle high German) „Wie wir beide / Die Blumen brachen und das Gras“ (contemporary German) [How we both broke the flowers and the grass].

© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (picture and poem)

Ahwas (اهواز)

David McMurray of the Asahi Haikuist Network selected the following HAIKU:

“Lothar M. Kirsch strolled along the Rhine at Rheinpark in Cologne.”

River kiosk

still selling refreshments

despite the wind

“A fan of Pink Floyd for 50 years, Lothar M. Kirsch visited a music exhibition for the iconic rock band in Dortmund, Germany. “

Hey! Teachers!

no brick in the wall

cheerful memories

“Lothar M. Kirsch sketches “villagers in Tibet walking around the fields after the harvest.””

After the harvest

scarecrow joins villagers

dancing merrily

© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (poems)

Do not Sing Your Song in the Desert

Through the wild Lurestan, past rugged rocks
The fields are withered besides the trails
The rain dancer did not understand his business
We paused and sweat dripped off our foreheads
The water bag was empty and crackéd

There was no life or water down in the valley
Because water means life and no water is death
Where did the people go? Where was the land?
There we sang a song about Lurestan and his fields
A sad song of a withered and dying land

But then the rain came in the middle of the night
We drank from the puddle next to us

We went from the desert to a village surrounded by greenery
And joined singing the happy songs of Lurestan

Kermanschah (کرمانشاه)
© 2018 Lothar M. Kirsch (picture and poem)

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